R2B2
R2B2 was a personal project that started in 2022. Based on the famous character from a once loved franchise, this page documents the process of a student’s attempt to make a robot with limited resources. (as if it were in a gally)
Conceptualization
Concept: the idea was to make the tallest robot I could with the parts available in the robotic’s club room, based on how limited the materials were, it was decided that the robot would be a tripod like robot with three wheels. Later it was decided to add a spinny head to the top. Currently the blueprints are not found.
Metal Mennance
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The Robot had multiple motors, one was delegated to the head movement, and two were delegated to the movement of the robot relative to space. “This metal beast of steel and aluminum was not the best looking thing, so we added a chassis so it does not look that scary when it goes rolling after you” (anonymous) as such paper was taped to the body of the robot, giving it more of an appearance of a more famous robot. The robot was bulky, each piece of steel or aluminum added weight, and the more weight impacted movement in one way or the other, sometimes forcing it to steer in one way or another.
Transition to 3d printing
One day the robotics club got an idea of making an R2 unit but based on the official 3d designs and such, test printing one body to see how it could work. This orange body was then assembled via 3d pen and filament, and a head for it was designed separately and printed uniquely for this robot. The metal menace was then taken apat into different section and the legs and head were engineered to try taking as little metal weight as possible. But the plastic body was not the best, do to it being more of a prototype, the filament was not heavy/filled enough to support all the force of the legs trying to go forward, therefor they try tearing the whole body apart. Eventually new designs for the legs and the insides were made, but by the time they finished, the robot’s new 3d printed body took a beating. As such, the robot was fitted with handles and a tray, to prevent fall damage from completely unaliving the robot.
Made of plastic? fantastic!
 Screenshot 2025-02-11 004012 |  Screenshot 2025-02-11 003923 |
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 Screenshot 2025-02-11 003905 |  Screenshot 2025-02-11 003850 |
 Screenshot 2025-02-10 234152 |  Screenshot 2025-02-10 234058 |
 Screenshot 2025-02-10 234005 |  A913F3BA-81A2-4628-A270-0D6511E10B7F |
 IMG_4794 |  IMG_4793 |
 IMG_5274 |  IMG_5273 |
 IMG_4858 |  Screenshot 2025-02-10 234058 |
 Screenshot 2025-02-10 234152 |
When the designed parts for the robot were completed, the metal was slowly phased out of the robot almost entirely, making the lead and motor gizmos being the few things left filled with metal. Sadly some of the parts were not in tolerance so the part had to be filed down a bit and the robot had to be more scared. The parts designed were simple and made to fit into each other. However, there was still the problem of the robot legs trying to come apart, so a wooden rod had to connect the two legs.
When the parts were printing, the constant scars from the previous damages from either falling or mechanical strain was becoming quite a bit. As such the robot was given a paint job, first giving it a coat base of white gesso, then using the color scheme of the club, the robot was given a greenish blue coloring with yellow highlighting the scars of it’s past. This gave the robot a friendlier expression that was then shown to many people.
